Twitter is an awkward place to fight about sex and religion, especially when the clash is between ABC's current Bachelorette and a man who wanted to be her husband.
Former Miss Alabama USA Hannah Brown recently tweeted: "time and time again jesus loved and ate with 'sinners' who laughed and time and time again he rebuked 'saints' that judged. where do you fall Luke?"
Luke Parker, who asked Brown not to use the show's "Fantasy Suites" nights as opportunities for sex with finalists, replied: "There is a difference between eating with sinners who laugh and sinners who laugh at their sin. Sin is the very thing that put Jesus on the cross and that's not a laughing matter."
The last straw for these two Bible Belt Christians? When Parker urged her to not to put sex before marriage, the Bachelorette responded: "I prayed so much for clarity and I feel like I have finally gotten clarity on you. And I do not want you to be my husband."
Parker kept trying, which led to this kiss-off one liner from Brown: "I have had sex and, like, Jesus still loves me."
These debates happen all the time and pastors know that many young people in their pews have made their own compromises between centuries of doctrine and premarital sex, said sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.
"What's striking about what we see here is now naive so many young people are about life and love and marriage," said Wilcox, referring to "The Bachelorette" clash. "They don't seem to understand how important it is to develop self control as they try to move seriously into emotional, physical and spiritual relationships. …
"So many young people don't realize that what the pop culture is selling them is not conducive to a good relationship, based on what we know from the social sciences."
According to Wilcox, experts who dig deep into the biennial General Social Survey, conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, see clear signs of the struggles many young people are having finding happiness, marriage partners and stable sex lives.